Planning for a COVID-19 vaccination campaign in New Zealand: trust, affective and cognitive attitudes, and COVID-19 vaccine intention

ABSTRACT

Building public trust and willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19 is as important as developing a safe and effective vaccine to contain the pandemic. Based on the theory of planned behaviour and trust heuristic, this study tests factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination intentions using a national sample survey of the New Zealand public (N = 1040). Results show that while trust in health experts, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and mass media are significantly associated with COVID-19 vaccine intention, affective attitude, and cognitive attitude partly mediate this relationship. Findings can help inform theory and practice of health campaigns to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Trusted sources communicating information that addresses prevailing vaccine concerns are likely to increase public enthusiasm for COVID-19 vaccination.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• vaccination intentions
• vaccine attitudes
• trust
• health campaign
• SARS-CoV-2

Disclosure statement

The authors have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for the data collection was sponsored by Massey University.

Notes on contributors

Jagadish Thaker

Dr. Jagadish Thaker (JT) is currently working as a Senior Lecturer in Communication at the University of Auckland. His research interests are in the fields of health, science, and climate change communication.

Christopher Cook

Dr. Christopher Cook (PhD., Massey University) is an independent researcher working in the area of digital health technologies.